We all know data should be FAIR—findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. This has become a rallying cry of our community. It is not a new concept, but the catchy phrasing has given it new visibility and urgency. Nonetheless, most research still has antiquated approaches to data sharing. That is changing in the Earth and space sciences at least.

This is a fleshed out version of my speaking notes for the talk I gave at Plenary 9 in Barcelona entitled “Three and a half years in fifteen minutes”.

If you want to see how it actually came out with all the emotion, stuttering, and arm waving, you can watch the recording.

Here’s a simpler text version:

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Dear Members,

I’ll be blunt. I am confused, even appalled, at the low participation rates for TAB elections (currently less than 5%).

Perhaps it is not as visible as it should be, but TAB is one of the most critical bodies of RDA. They are the community’s voice to Council. They are the frontline guardians of the RDA mission. They are the facilitators of inter-group connections within RDA. They have prepared a nice description of what TAB does.

Building infrastructure through strategies of interconnection (not an architecture)